The first Quarter Quell
by rorostar
Summary: When the laws of the hunger games were made it was decided that every 25 years a quarter quell would be held. On the 25th anniversary the first quarter quell each district voted on who would represent it...
1. Chapter 1

I do not own the hunger games they belong to Suzanne Collins

I'm huddled up against the back wall of the bakery as a couple of years living on the street has taught me it's the warmest place I can be in the evenings. I'm still cold though. I'm resolved to get up and move around when someone calls my name. I turn round to see Zinnia standing at the end of the street. When she sees she's got my attention she turns round and walks off, I'm to follow her words are not wasted between us. After a few minutes I can see she's leading me to the justice building and when she picks up another boy and girl I know she's rounding us up to earn a few more coins, I can't blame her though: an orphan like me with three younger siblings two of which aren't old enough to work in the fields she doesn't have much of a choice. I guess in some ways I'm lucky I've only got me. Being an only child isn't a common occurrence in district 11 unless your siblings have died of starvation. Most parents have lots of children because it means more people who can work to bring in enough money to feed the family, I guess my parents didn't think like that or maybe they just didn't get around to it before my father died. He died when I was 4 years old so my memories of him are very fuzzy, I'm not sure how he died my mother didn't talk about him much.

When we get to the justice building I can see zinnia's done a good job of rounding us all up as the square is pretty full. I see Ceres with his sisters and brother near the back so I shuffle in next to him. He has a roll of bread in his hands and tears off a bit and gives it to me. 'thanks' I say 'how did you afford it?' in reply he starts a conversation about why we're all gathered here and relays some of the rumours to me, I don't press him further. I can see a screen has been put up on the veranda of the justice building. Apparently our justice building was beautiful before the rebellion but now it's starting to fall into disrepair, ivy is starting to grow up the marble pillars and some of the tiles on the roof have fallen off but I don't really think this makes it that less beautiful, it makes it look kind of peaceful. The screen looks quite out of place.

All of a sudden the screen flickers into life and Emi Cett's familiar face appears. She must be at least seventy but it's hard to tell with all her makeup and operations, she's been presenting the hunger games for the full 24 yrs and apparently she was a presenter before the rebellion. She stands up and the camera zooms out to reveal her glittery purplish blue Suit. 'Well aren't you wondering what I'm doing presenting? It isn't another couple of months till the hunger games.' She pauses as if giving us time to answer before continuing in her silly capitol accent ' This year will be the 25th hunger games so it will be the first ever quarter Quell and I bet you are just as excited as I am! We are here today for the very special reading of the card…' Emi steps to the side and the anthem begins to play President Onach walks onto the stage followed by Coriolanus Snow, who seemed to be shadowing the President these days, and a girl holding a wooden box. The anthem ends and the President starts with the speech that usually begins every reaping. The speech talks about the creation of panem, the dark days of the rebellion and then the concept of the hunger games then he says 'when the laws of the hunger games were laid out they dictated that every 25 years the anniversary would be marked by a glorified version of the games to be known as a quarter quell.' On this the girl steps forward and opens the box to reveal rows of envelopes Onach takes out the first which is labelled 25 and opens it. 'on the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district will be made to hold an election to vote on the tributes to represent it' a murmur runs through the crowd. I look at Ceres and he seems just as confused as I am then he says 'does this mean we won't be able to sign up for a tesserae?' then suddenly that's what everyone else is saying because isn't the tesserae what all these homeless children rely on most…


	2. Chapter 2

I for one had been relying on signing up for a tesserae, I hadn't been able to sign up for 1 before but my twelfth birthday was a few days after the reading of the card and I had really needed it. I didn't start working until after my mother died and what an eleven year old child could earn was very little so I'm ashamed to say I mainly relied on Ceres. He's almost a year older than me so was able to sign up for tesserae a long time before I was but this alone would not have allowed him to support me it would have hardly supported his own family. Ceres is a thief. He never steals much and only ever food and he says he only ever takes it from the people who can spare it. Everyone knows he's a thief but luckily for him people had enough sympathy for him or at least his younger siblings not to report him. Because what would happen to his seven and five year old sisters and three year old brother if he couldn't work for a couple of weeks because he had been whipped or even executed… they would starve and even if it 'wasn't their problem' no one wanted the deaths of 3 young children on their conscience, except for the capitol. I wasn't prepared to take the risk though but I came close when they announced formally that we couldn't sign up for tesserae. Eventually due to the outcry against it they came up with a solution if you signed up before the Election Day your name would be put on the first page or the second and so on. So I signed up and it wasn't until the election I realised I had made a mistake, everyone over the age of twelve could vote on the tributes and what everyone wanted to do was get it over with quickly so the people on the first few pages were more likely to get chosen. I wasn't sure who to go for so I went to one of the back pages for both the boys and the girls and chose two people I didn't know, who looked fairly strong and were seventeen years old.

Today is the day the votes are being announced. This time last year I was wishing luck to Ceres and promising to look after Orchis, Aphea and Brae while he was at the reaping, this time I'm going with him. When I find him he's kneeling down in front of Orchis issuing instructions to her. 'yes I know!' she says pushing her hair behind her ear 'it's only an hour, and we'll wait just outside of the square, I know' she says staring into her brother's eyes, she looks about as different from her brother as she can, her light strawberry blond hair, green eyes and small face against his dark brown hair and brown eyes.

'Ok just be careful' he says giving her a kiss and standing up 'Gaia, you ready?' I nod, too nervous to talk. Seeing I'm nervous he takes hold of my hand and despite not wanting to seem like a little kid in front of him I'm grateful. I scoop up Brae and carrying him still holding onto Ceres. After a while we stop and Ceres lets Aphea climb onto his back just leaving Orchis running along ahead of us.

As we get closer to the square and we're pulled into the throng of people heading there Ceres calls Orchis back to us and tells her to hold on to us, so she clutches onto the skirt of my dress, my reaping dress. It's one of the few items of clothing I still have from my old home, my mother gave it to me for my tenth birthday around a month before she died so I was careful to look after it. It's pretty small on me but at least it's clean, the kind lady from the bakery washed it for me, and it's the only smart thing I have.

When we reach the edge of the square Ceres sets Aphea down next to Orchis and I thankfully deposit Brae next to his sisters, for a three year old who's never really had enough to eat he's surprisingly heavy. Ceres gives them a hug reminds and reminds Orchis to be careful before taking my hand again and walking into the square. As we walk he looks back at them and says 'Gaia, if I …'

'Of course' I say stopping him, that possibility is something I definitely don't want to think about. He squeezes my hand and wishes me 'good luck' before we are separated.

The crowd pushes me into my place. I find myself surrounded by girls my age, mainly merchants children who I don't know. I'm suddenly terrified as I search the crowd for someone I know until I see Zinnia quite far in front of me, she's fourteen I think, who when she sees me smiles and says something that I can't quite hear but I think it's 'don't worry'.

Feedback from a microphone being switched on silences the crowd , I look up and see Hayward Kiwi our Mayor at the front of the veranda. Behind him are three chairs on one sits Xabina Pennant, and Maris Piper so far eleven's only victor, she won in one of the first few years of the games before the richer districts had come up with the idea of career tributes. The Mayor starts to speak repeating the speech about the birth of Panem the dark days of the rebellion, the hunger games and then he talks about the quarter quell. Then after introducing Xabina Pennant to us he sits down in the third chair. Xabina stands up and walks over to the microphone her silver hair shining in the sunlight.

'hello, aren't you just so excited the first ever quarter quell is finally here' she says beaming at us 'well as the Quarter Quell is a time to mix things up I think we'll start with the men' she crosses over to the glass ball, which instead of hundreds of paper slips just has one envelope at the bottom. She plucks out the envelope and walks back to the microphone. She opens the envelope and reads out the name 'Ceres Mason'.

I can't think. Ceres Mason. It can't be, it can't, it's not possible. As he walks through the crowd he's looking around, searching for someone, Orchis and the others probably. No it's me, he catches my eyes and stares at me and I know what he means. I nod. He climbs onto the stage and is greeted by Xabina Pennant . 'Well, well done Ceres you have been won the vote for the honour of representing your district in the Hunger Games' he just stares at her blankly. So do we all, voted in for the honour! It's not an honour and how much worse does it make it that he was voted for! Then I realisethat these people here, some of them at least must have voted for him these people my neighbours are to blame for sending my best friend to his death. I can see a few people staring at the floor uncomfortably and the adults at the back of the square a lot of them look uncomfortable. Maybe I was wrong maybe it's not the idea of a guilty conscience that prevents them from turning Ceres in but the idea of other people finding out because if they had a conscience surely they would not have voted to send this boy to his death and therefore cause the deaths of his three younger siblings. But I guess no one really has a conscience when it comes to the hunger games. Maybe the people I voted for were in a similar position to him younger siblings depending on them. I'm so shocked and upset staring up at him, standing there defiantly staring into the sky refusing to look at the people who condemned him to this, that I don't fully register Xabina walking to the other ball, pulling out the envelope and reading the name. There seems to be some sort of gasp or muttering and I'm wondering why then I notice the people around me are staring at me but it still isn't until one of them prods me in the back saying 'Gaia Hawthorn?' that I realise it's me…


	3. Chapter 3

I start to move slowly towards the stage and as I come closer and the screen focuses on me there are more gasps and muttering because if they didn't know be my name they can see me know, see how small I am, see that I'm just a 12 year old girl in a dress that's too short for her and maybe they've seen me around, seen me with Ceres…

But still I don't see how they're so shocked as some of them must have voted on me for me to be coming up here. I reach the stage and climb up. Xabina greets me and repeats the same sort of thing she said to Ceres then 'ok then shake hands' we go to shake hands and somehow end up hugging. 'I'm sorry' I whisper. 'Me too' he replies. Sorry for what? Sorry for the position the others in, sorry that I can't watch out for his siblings, sorry that he couldn't help me, sorry that we're embarrassing ourselves in front of everyone, sorry that we might have to kill each other…? Just sorry.

We are escorted into separate rooms; this is where our family and friends will come to see us for quite probably the last time… I wonder if anyone will come to see me. After around ten minutes I decide that nobody is coming and just try to get some rest. Until the door opens and Zinnia comes in. She walks towards me and doesn't seem to know what to do. 'Nobody was coming to see you so I came…' I nod.

'You're so young, why would anyone vote for a twelve year old?' she says.

'Like you said, no one was coming to see me, I'm an orphan with no siblings who cares if I die' I say staring at the elaborately patterned carpet.

'I'm sure that's not true' she says desperately trying to think of an example 'Ceres and his siblings'

'That's not much use seeing as he's coming with me' I say. She stares at the floor probably trying to think of something to say to comfort me I think she must give up as the next think she does is ask if I want to see Orchis, Aphea and Braeburn. 'I know that you're going into the hunger games with their brother but I thought you might want to say goodbye.' I nod again.

'Ok then, good bye and good luck' she says standing up and walking towards the door.

'Who did you vote for? I ask stopping her at the door.

'Some people I didn't know they were eighteen' she says opening the door and leaving. I guess I'll have to wait a few minutes while Zinnia finds them so I get up and start looking around the room when to my surprise someone else comes in. it's the lady from the bakery the one who washed my dress. When I see her I can't help myself from blurting out 'did you vote for Ceres?'

'No dear I didn't' she says coming over to me 'I think anyone who did would feel guilty now seeing his siblings standing there crying'. She leads me to the sofa and sits down next to me. 'You're going to be alright you hear?' she says to me and suddenly I start crying because I know that's not true. We just sit there me crying and her stroking my hair, telling me that it's alright, it's going to be ok, maybe there was a mistake. I wish I could believe her. I think she's partly trying to say it to herself. After a while the peacekeepers come and tell her to leave. She leaves silently leaving me trying to dry my tears. Orchis, Aphea and Brae come in just as she leaves. They've been crying as well, their eyes are red rimmed and Aphea's still sniffing. Brae can't have understood what was happening he was probably crying just because his sisters were. He toddles over too me and Aphea follows him but Orchis hangs back. Aphea has a flower in her hand well more a flower made up of lots of tiny little flowers she gives it to me 'Orchis picked this for you earlier to wear to the reaping but forgot to give it to you'

'It's my name…' Orchis says 'it'll be alright wont it? you'll work something out, you and Ceres won't you?' I nod; I don't have the energy to comfort her.

'You won't hurt him will you?' she says.

'Of course I won't, it will be fine don't worry' I reply forcing a smile

'Good I knew it would, didn't I Aph?'Orchis says Aphea nods agreeing to whatever her big sister says. The peacekeepers come and tell them to leave I give them all a quick hug then say something about how I'm sure the woman from the bakery will look out for them while they wait for Ceres to come back…

No one else comes. After a while peacekeepers come and march me down to the train station. I regret crying when I get there: there are more cameras and it's obvious I've been crying. I wipe my eyes again and try to avoid the cameras then I change my mind I stare straight ahead letting the cameras see my face the tears in my face, the hatred in my face. I want the capitol to know it's their fault I'm crying, I want the people in my district to know it's their fault too. They voted for me…

I get on the train behind Xabina and Maris gets on behind me and behind her I can see Ceres just coming in the door which shuts behind him and the train starts to move almost immediately. As we walk along the carriages I can see district 11 zooming past me through the windows. I've been on a train once before which is unusual for someone in district 11. It was before my mother died, she was overseeing a delivery of plant cuttings or something like that from somewhere near the edge of district 11. It was during the school holidays and I was too young to stay at home on my own as my mother couldn't find anyone to look after me I went with her. We went there by train then came back in the vans with the cuttings. It was nothing like this train though, it was nowhere near as fast and nowhere near as smart. On the train we have our own room with a bathroom Xabina leaves me their telling me we'll be on the train overnight and that now I have an hour to get washed and changed for dinner. I decide to wash first so go into the bathroom and find a shower. I've never used a shower before. I stand under it and press a button in the centre of a little board of dials and buttons. Suddenly I am being sprinkled with freezing cold water. I shriek and turn it off. I turn a few dials before pressing the centre button again this time only putting my arm into the water. It's scalding hot, I withdraw my arm quickly and mess around with a few more dials until eventually I get a temperature that I can cope with. I feel like I could stand in the shower for ages but I remember that I've only got an hour so I quickly wash myself then get out. When I get out I feel the cleanest I've been in ages it'd be great if it wasn't because of where I am headed.

I open a wardrobe and lots of drawers seeing a seemingly endless selection of clothes. For a moment I just stand staring at them; I don't think I've ever seen so many dresses together in my life. I decide I want to try on as many of them as possible before dinner. I try on what seems like hundreds of dresses, skirts, trousers and tops but I feel strange in them not only because hardly any of them fit me (I guess they weren't expecting a twelve year old). In the end I just put my own dress back on because it reminds me of my mother and right now I really miss her. I pull a hairbrush through my hair then look at my reflection in a mirror, no matter how I feel, I look terrible: my hair is wet and tangled, my eyes are red from crying and my small tight dress isn't helping. I just sit on the bed until Maris comes and fetches me for dinner…

**Sorry it may be a little while before i can upload the next chapter as i'm going back to school tomorrow but hopefully i'll get it done soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

When we get to the dining carriage none of the others are there yet. We sit at a table laid with fancy plates and cutlery with a basket of bread and two little ramekins with butter. I stare at the bread. Maris smiles 'you can have some if you like' she says. I grab a slice of bread and I notice Maris is watching me. I don't know much about her, I know she was seventeen when she won the 3rd hunger games so she must remember the first, she must remember the rebellion. The victor's village isn't near where I live so I only see her at the hunger games but I've heard she's quite kind although that only makes you wonder how she won because as they say no one decent ever wins the hunger games.

I'm disturbed in my thoughts by Ceres coming in and behind him Xabina. Ceres stares down at the basket of bread and I can tell what he's thinking: he's working out how much bread he could sneak into his pockets. 'Ceres' I say reminding him where he is. He gives me a weak smile and squeezes in beside me.

When we're all sat down the capitol attendants appear and serve us. There is a lot of food. As we eat Xabina just blathers on about 'isn't this just so exciting the first quarter quell!' and Maris just keeps offering us more food. Once I'm full to bursting Maris says we should go to catch the recap of the reapings now so we stand up and go into another carriage with a television.

Xabina switches on the Television and we catch Emi Cett mid-sentence introducing the recap. It starts from district 1 and works its way through to 12. I notice that in the career districts the tributes seem to be proud that they won. The girl from two particularly scares me; she must be about 18 and she's very big but it's not so much that as the look in her eyes that really freaks me out. Other than the careers the tributes are mainly skinny although a few of them are quite tall. Other than possibly the boy from 7 I don't think any of them are as young as me but quite a few of them don't seem that much taller than me or look any stronger than me.

After the recap I somehow find my way back to my room. While I sleep the girl from 2's face haunts my dreams…

**Sorry its so short but i'll try to do a longer chapter next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

I wake up screaming at about six in the morning but I can't get back to sleep so in the end I just get up. I pull on a skirt and top that's slightly too big for me and wander around the train until I find myself in the dining carriage. Maris is there: she smiles at me and beckons me over to sit with her. 'couldn't sleep?' she says. I nod as I sit down opposite her. When I look at her I notice she has bags under her eyes and around her are several banana peels and apple cores suggesting she's been here a while. I look at the brown liquid in her mug 'coffee?' I say.

she nods 'you can have some if you like, but you'd probably prefer a hot chocolate.'

'chocolate?' I haven't had chocolate since my mother died and even then only very occasionaly.

Maris smiles as she stands up to press a button by the door. A few minutes later a mildly annoyed and tired looking attendant appears to take my order of a hot chocolate. While we wait Maris describes capitol food to me, it's a pointless but safe topic. When she is explaining a fish curry to me I'm presented with a mug of brown sweet smelling liquid. I drink it quickly then regret it because it makes me feel a bit sick. When Maris sees my expression she laughs 'sorry I should have warned you not to drink it so quickly' we continue talking about food until Ceres comes.

He squeezes in beside me and says a polite good morning to Maris. She smiles and says 'well now you're here I expect we can start' she says something to the capitol assistant and in what seems like seconds we are presented with dishes by about a hundred attendants. We eat our way through it talking little and when we finish Maris sighs. 'well I guess we had better do it sometime, ok you two stand and lets have a look at you' she says. We obey her and stand up quickly. She looks at us and says 'you look quite strong Ceres and maybe if you are allies you can help Gaia but you will have to split up if you get near to the end because I don't think either of you would… never mind. Can either of you use any weapons?' we shake our heads.

'oh well, maybe you can learn to use some reasonably well in training' she says but she doesn't sound all that hopeful. 'Gaia maybe you could get sponsors by being cute but no one will sponsor you if they don't think you have a chance and Ceres you've got your sisters the capitol always loves a sob story…' she is interrupted by Xabina entering, ordering a coffee and telling us we'll be arriving in exactly 15 minutes.

Around five minutes later we are submerged in darkness for a few seconds as the lights switch on as we enter a tunnel. The tunnel goes on and on Xabina tells us we're going underneath the mountains surrounding the capitol. I wish she hadn't told me the idea of all of that mountain above our heads freaks me out a bit. Eventually we reach the end of the tunnel and we can see the capitol. It looks amazing its so shiny and colourful I've seen it on television of course but it hardly does it justice. As we pull into a station capitol people stare at us. They look so strange, green skin, pink hair, purple eyes… we stop at the station and are directed off the train into a car out of the car into different rooms … here I am presented to two capitol people. They say their names are Demitria and Laprius then get to work.

What seems like years later Demitria and Laprius leave me shivering in a dressing gown waiting for my stylist. A few minutes later a man with reddish purple hair and purple tattoos running down his arms enters. He smiles comfortingly and then says 'I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to take that off' I do, slightly embarrassed but not really I've already been through this with my prep team and really the stylist hardly looks human more like some sort of sea creature or fairy. 'ok you can put it back on now, you're a bit taller than I thought from the reapings so I'll have to adjust the dress slightly. Hmmm it's always so pointless designing costumes before the reapings this was the only one of the costumes I designed that would suit you at all. So you know that it has to be themed with your district, well this isn't quite but I think we'll get away with it' he says smiling and pulls out my costume…


	6. Chapter 6

When I see Ceres I almost laugh but quickly turn it into a cough. 'nasty cough you've got there.' He smiles and looks at my dress 'it suits you, much better than mine' he doesn't look that bad just a little silly. Our outfits are supposed to correspond to each other and they do, kind of, I'm in a dress made out of orange blossom and he is an orange. 'I don't think flowers would have suited you though' I say. Maris appears at this point and looks at Ceres' costume 'it's not that bad it makes you look quite big…'

'and stupid' Ceres points out.

'at least they'll remember you' I say.

'to laugh about me'

Then we're distracted from Ceres' costume as the others start to arrive. And Ceres' costume is not the worst, it doesn't even come close. Suddenly I'm really grateful to my stylist for not making me look stupid. Like there's the girl from 4 naked apart from a few fishing nets standing there awkwardly trying to cover herself up, I guess it's a bit much even for a career. Then there are some lumps of coal from 12 who are struggling to get into their chariot. I point them out to Ceres 'at least you're not them' I say and then the girl from two arrives. She seems to be dressed as some sort of statue her skin has been painted grey and all her clothes are grey she looks as if she's made of stone. Including her eyes. I realise that's what scared me so much about her before. Her eyes are so lifeless, so emotionless so cold…

I'm still staring at her when the chariot jolts and I fall into Ceres. Who laughs and pushes me back up.

We start slowly, ahead of us I can see district one's chariot turning the corner into the crowd, then two, then three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten, then us.

As we come out into the crowds I can see the screens and they show us for a few seconds before going onto the lumps of coal behind us. The dress does suit me and I don't look too bad especially next to Ceres. But I do look small, which I'm not for my age, it's just Ceres is so tall and strong looking that next to him I look small and fragile.

I'm not sure what I'm meant to be doing, and I think back to what I've seen previous years, some tributes smile and wave but I don't quite feel up to that so I just entertain myself by looking at the capitol people with their weird hair and clothes. Ceres must have noticed what I was doing because he says something about the capitol people making me laugh. I'm just thinking I must be slightly crazy laughing at the people who are sending me to my death when I realise that now me and Ceres are on the screen showing me laughing and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not but I can't seem to stop laughing now anyway . The girl from two who must be annoyed that I've got the attention of the screens turns her head to glare at me. That shuts me up.

We halt outside President Onach's mansion and he gives a speech welcoming us, the tributes, to the capitol. Coriolanus Snow is as usual standing behind him and even gives a short welcome of his own before we make a final circle round and enter the training centre. As the doors clunk shut behind us cutting off the noise of the crowd I realise the next time I leave this building will be to go to the arena…


	7. Chapter 7

I jump down off the chariot once we're inside then am about to help Ceres down because he seems to be struggling with his costume but Maris gets there first. As soon as Ceres is down he comes over to me. Maris looks at us worriedly then just as Ceres is about to say something tells him he should go and see if his stylist will help him get his costume off. I wonder what that's about but don't really have time to think about it because Xabina comes and starts talking to me about how cute I looked and that she thought it was really sweet the way Ceres made me laugh, even if I did laugh for a bit long, and… but I'm not really listening. At the mention of Ceres making me laugh Maris turned away and when she turns back I can see her eyes are glistening like she's about to cry…

'Come lets go' Xabina says leading us to the lift. Ceres is with us again in a green jumper and trousers he must have been wearing underneath the orange 'you must have been really hot in all that' I say to him sympathetically. 'yeah, I did think I looked pretty attractive' he says smiling and I push him into the lift. 'Eleven, second top' Xabina says pressing the button and up we go. Through the walls I can see the full extent of the capitol as we get higher and I'm staring out at it and I'm pretty sure it's staring back at us too. Ceres is also staring out through the lifts walls but he's looking down and he's dead still. 'Scared of heights?' I say nudging him.  
>'I guess' he says as the lift jolts to a stop.<p>

'Your room' Xabina says opening the door closest to the lift.

The first thing I see is my reflection in a massive mirror, my dress is starting to wilt. Im surprised the flowers have lasted this long without water actually, I guess they must have used some sort of chemical to make them last longer. I should probably get changed but I'm so tired that all I can do is flop down unto the ginormous bed…

_I'm running. Fast. Through the streets of the capitol. Running away. Away from what? It's deserted. No capitol people funny looking hair, no tributes, no Ceres. I'm alone. And I'm running. Round corners. Through dark streets. Past empty houses. Towards the president's mansion. And I keep running faster and faster. There's a statue that wasn't their earlier. And I stop. Confused. Where to now? Then the statue starts to move. As it turns it makes strange thudding noises like_ knocking on a wooden door.

I wake up to someone knocking on my door. I shiver because just before I woke up I saw… 'Gaia?' I sit up and realise my flower dress is starting to fall apart. I quickly stand up and search the wardrobe for something to wear with someone, probably Xabina saying 'Gaia? Gaia are you there, it's time for dinner. Gaia?' And more knocking.

Dinner is delicious. I'm so distracted by the food that I keep missing what the others are saying… 'gaia! I said do you want to train together or separately?' Maris says.  
>'oh, together' I say quickly. Maris lets out an exasperated sigh and slams down her cutlery.<br>'you do know only one of you can win this, don't you? You can't both live!' she says then leaves.

The rest of dinner is quiet after that, apart from Xabina babbling on. Because I know it's obvious but me and Ceres haven't been thinking about that. We've been laughing and trying to make the best of it but… there's not really anything we can make best of. Her saying it like that quiets us because although we know it no one's actually said it making it… real.

When I sleep I have the same dream and wake up screaming because again when the statue turns I see the girl from two's face staring at me…


End file.
